NineteenYearsLater

I left Transfiguration with Albus in tow, talking to John about the easiest way to turn something back into its original form, once you had turned it into whatever. I ran into James as we rounded the corner. (I don’t mean we ran into him, I mean I smacked my face into his shoulder and neck, and he smacked directly into the wall with his face.)

“OW,” We moaned, both on the floor. James picked himself up first and gave me a hand up.

“Geez, Lillian,” He said, clutching his forehead, “can you get any more klutzy?”

I let out a grumble and was able to heal myself of any bruises. (John was there, remember?) I reached out to James and he took his hand off of his face. I grimaced at the lump that was growing on his forehead and touched it lightly with my fingertip. It shrank within seconds and was gone just as suddenly as it had been put there.

“There, any better?” I asked him, ignoring the slight he had made at my expense, since I totally deserved it for smashing into him.

He nodded numbly.

“How’d you do that?” He asked, as we headed off for the common room. I gave him a half-smile.

“If John’s near me we can do just about anything,” I said, as Albus said, “Flitwick’s broom” for the password into the common room. John nodded in agreement with me and we all took our seats in the back corner of the room.

James just gave me a look which I returned.

“By the way, James,” I said, thinking of something, “Can you teach me how to turn into an animagus?”

Everyone looked at James in shock. He glared at me.

“Sorry, I thought your family knew,” was all that I would say.

He shook his head.

“No, no one knew except you, Lillian,” he said, looking annoyed, “thanks for letting the whole world know.”

I sighed and looked at everyone.

“Who do you not want to remember?” I asked him, looking at everyone’s confused looks.

“Everyone would be fine with me, and if you want to learn come to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.” I nodded and he left.

I turned to everyone and erased their memories with the charm that I had read in a book. (We hadn’t quite gotten to that point yet)

I left the group early, claiming I needed some fresh air, and quickly found James standing at the edge of the forest. He gave me a bright smile when I told him what I had done.

“Hey,” He stopped me, “Before I show you how to do this, can you show me how to use magic without a wand?”

I nodded, “I can try.”

“Good, now follow me because my dad told me about this place we can go to where no one will bother us.”

I followed at he led us up to the Whomping Willow. I felt myself pale at the prospect of going beneath its branches, but James had it all figured out already.

“Mal, go for it,” He whispered to the snake in parseltongue. The snake slithered to the tree and delicately tapped a knob with his head. The tree looked frozen and we both took two tentative steps towards it before running. We had no idea how much longer it would stay like that and we didn’t want to get hit. Even John’s and my healing powers wouldn’t be enough to fix everything that tree could do.

We followed the passage beneath the tree to the Shrieking Shack.

“My dad told me about this,” James told me, leading the way, “in fact, he gave me a map to it.”

I gave him a curious look, to which he made no reply.

We entered the shack, (The only reason I knew it was the shrieking shack was because of how it looked. There was no way it was anything but the shack.), and I followed him to the uppermost reaches of the shack. The room we entered looked no different from the others we passed, but James reacted to it like he was looking for this one specifically.

He turned to me, “You can’t tell anyone that we came here, or even what we are doing here, is that understood?”

I gave him an exasperated look, “Didn’t I erase everyone’s memories just so that we were the only people that know about your ability to change form?”

He gave me a glare and I gave him a sweet smile in return.

He shrugged and let it go. I pushed those thoughts out of my head and faced him.

“Teach me how to change into an animal, James,” I said, irony lacing my words, “Or should I say, teacher.”

He shot back with, “Well teach me first, Master.”

We grinned at each other, and I began the arduous journey of trying to get him to be able to work without a wand.

-Two hours later-

“James! Concentrate on the wand in my hand and make it come to you!” I almost yelled, but figured that wouldn’t help. My hair was going everywhere, and James looked as harried as I felt.

He grimaced, “It makes my head hurt!”

I sighed, “Of course it does! You’re doing something you haven’t ever tried before! Now try again.”

He growled and glared at the wand. He spoke the words, “Accio wand,” and looked to be in deep concentration. (We had found that he needed to have something to grasp on to, at least until he got the idea so for the time being he was saying the spell aloud.) Without either of us touching it, the wand slowly rose from my hand and floated there for a moment before losing its buoyancy and falling back into my palm. I almost cried with joy. He had finally gotten it to move!

I took one look at him and called it a night.

“But I didn’t do it properly,” He complained, as I gently leaned him against me and we started our trip back to our rooms. I grinned into his shoulder as we slowly made our way down the rickety steps of the shack.

“James, you got it to float,” I said, “I have to say that that is quite impressive on your first try.” (I didn’t mention the fact that I had been able to do it on my first try, because I knew two things; one, that he needed encouragement, and two, that I had been using magic for as long as I could remember and it was no surprise that I could do it so easily.)

I saw him grin, just as we both tripped on the same ripple in the rug and went flying. Something landed on me with all of the grace of a pile of fallen books. The air left both of our lungs and we just lay there, gasping.

“James,” I managed to get out, “James, you’re on top of me. Can you get off, I can’t breathe.”

He gasped out a sorry and put his arms on either side of my head, lifting himself off of me enough that I could breathe again.

His eyes caught mine and held them. I had never noticed how blue his eyes were until that moment, and I could feel the body heat from his arms as the temperature outside dropped.

“James,” I said, filling the silence that proceeded after the fall, “James, um, I’m all right now. You can get up now.”

I felt myself blushing and he seemed to be looking at me almost too intently. I knew something had to be done.

“So James,” I said, not meeting his eyes anymore, “how exactly do you change into an animagus?”

He actually seemed to snap out of it, “Like this.”

He changed into a little black kitten. I got up and quickly swiped James up into my arms.

I rushed down the stairs and through the tunnel. Right before I went up towards the Whomping Willow, James jumped out of my arms and went ahead. I didn’t see what he did, but I figured that he had hit the knob because the tree was stuck. I pulled out the invisibility cloak from my pocket and threw it around my shoulders. We walked back to the common room and sat in the chairs by the fire, James turning back into himself when he hopped onto his chair.

We exchanged looks and just sat there a while, trying to relax.

“Um, James?” I said, after a bit, “What happened near the end?”

He blushed and refused to meet my eyes.

“Sorry,” I continued to look at him until he met my eyes. We stared, as if captivated and he finished what he had started to say, “I-I guess I got a little excited.”

We sat there, staring and completely comfortable with it, for about ten minutes. Without saying anything, I got up to go to bed. James caught my arm when I passed him and we stared into each other’s eyes again.

“Will you continue to teach me how to use magic without a wand?” He asked me. I gave him a smile that made him look surprised.

“Yes James,” I said, “I will.”

I leaned over and kissed his cheek before either of us could think about anything. I ignored his look of shock and continued on my way upstairs. I felt something behind me, but ignored it until the stairs turned into a slide and I fell down the slide, landing on top of whoever had caused that.

John let out a noise that sounded like a cat being strangled. I got off of him quickly, but gave him a cautious look. When he stood up, he gave me a look that almost made me want to run.

“What were you doing with James out so late?” He asked me. I gave him a surprised look. “What? I know you have a crush on him. Don’t tell me you were somewhere private?”

I slapped him, making him take a step back. James leaned forward in his chair, but quickly leaned back when he realized that John didn’t know he was there.

“Excuse me for thinking like a normal person and connecting two dots,” He grumbled, and for a moment I almost believed him. (Well I did, until he gave me a look that was searching for me to believe that lie.)

I glared at him and he stared back.

“John, why would you try to stop me from doing something like that?” I asked him, and suddenly found myself slammed against a wall. He leaned over so that he could whisper in my ear.

“Because you’re mine,” He hissed into my ear, “do you hear?”

I was pressed against the wall and he was pressed against me in a very unbrotherly manner. I was aware that this was uncomfortable and I didn’t want to stay there much longer, so I looked over his shoulder, towards James for help. James stood up as if in tune with my thoughts.

“Excuse me, but is that any way for you to treat your sister?” He asked John, placing a hand on John’s shoulder. John whipped around and pointed at James.

I felt the spell building and quickly moved in front of James, taking the brunt of it. All of the air left my lungs as I slammed into James and we fell over. If he had taken that to the chest as I did, he would be on the other side of the room. (The only reason it didn’t happen to me was because I managed to block some of it with a spell.)

John rushed over to me and slapped me, “How dare you block that!”

I coughed again and managed to stand up off of James. He let out a grunt and sat up, giving me a relieved sigh.

“Sorry James,” I said, lending him a hand, “I had to do something.”

He gave me a grin and we both turned back to John. I glared at him.

“How dare you do that to my friend,” I said, prodding his chest. He looked surprised by the confrontation and backed up, as if he didn’t want to be faced with the idea that I could go after him. (I guess he forgot about our argument a couple of weeks ago)

He put up his hands and almost seemed as though he were trying to fend me off. I ignored the feeling that I was doing something to him subconsciously and pressed him back until he was the one against a wall. I leaned over. (He was actually an inch or two shorter than me, so that was fairly easy.)

“Doesn’t feel good, huh?” I whispered into his ear. Then I backed up, showed him that I meant no harm, and walked over to the dying fire. I prodded it with the poker and got it going again as John stayed there for quite some time. James sat on the couch near the chair I was sitting in.

He smiled at me when I met his eyes and I gave him a grin in return. John finally called it a night, so we were alone again.

“Well, I’m bushed,” I said finally, standing up and brushing myself off. James gave me a crooked grin to which I replied, “What?”

“You’re so American sometimes,” He said, letting out a laugh. He stood up and gave me a side-hug, “Good night, Lillian, we’ll try to work on the wand work and animagus stuff tomorrow, ok?”

I nodded and hugged him back before starting back up the stairs, for the second time that night.

My sleep was deep and uninterrupted. The next day I awoke to find that I had walked down to the common room in my sleep, and I was fairly certain it was more out of habit than anyone making me. (John had no wish to do that now.)